PIP gives me the pip!

The Disability Living Allowance in the UK is being replaced by PIP – the Personal Independence Payment; double-speak if ever I heard it! Everyone who currently claims DLA will have to be re-assessed for PIP, and Arthritis Care estimates that 42% of people who can currently get a car through the Motability scheme and higher-rate DLA will lose their cars through PIP.

At the same time I have just heard that the district nurses in a region near to us are no longer going to be doing what district nurses do, visiting people in their homes! So people are going to lose cars and then find themselves unable even to see a nurse. Apparently if people absolutely cannot, by any other means, get into the surgery, they will be provided with a courtesy car. I’ll be interested to see how that works out, and how much it costs, considering the district nurses only ever visited the people who couldn’t get into the surgery anyway!

The other thing that PIP is going to do to ‘save money’ is to change the current DLA walking test from inability to walk 50 metres ‘reliably, repeatedly, safely and in a timely fashion’, to someone who can’t walk 20 metres ‘reliably’. Reference to repeatability has notably been removed, so that anyone who can walk 20 metres on the day of their test will presumably not get PIP, even though with things like RA or MS, one might be able to walk a mile one day and no where the next.

2o metres is patently absurd; it seems to suggest that so long as someone can walk as far as the corner of their road or a neighbour’s house then they are fit enough to fend for themselves. According to the MP briefing prepared by a campaign group that Arthritis care are involved in, the 20m has not been based on any medical or scientific evidence; so it’s clearly a cynical decision to save money.

But in reality, much like the district nurses, how much money will it save? People who have their independence taken away from them will obviously be calling more on public services for help. The money will be being spent; just not from the same budget pot.

Who is this going to help?

Agree? Please write to your MP and tell them what you think and why. You can use the Arthritis Care Hardest Hit Campaign tool to help. All you have to do is put in your name and address; the tool will find your MP, produce a letter, which you can edit if you wish, and then you just press send to get it emailed over. It takes seconds – and it could make a real difference.

Photo by Leo Reynolds, (C) September 4 2010, licensed under Creative Commons

About these ads

2 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

This is shocking. I am constantly disgusted with the sort of cuts this government is making which seem to only affect the poorest and sickest whilst the MPs flounce about on their £70 000 salaries! And Cameron’s son being disabled surely should’ve made him more sympathetic, although I assume he had no need to claim Carer’s Pittance, I mean Allowance. The 50/20 metre thing is a joke. Who cares if disabled people can’t work or care of their families – take away their last freedom by taking their cars, that will sort everything out. Thanks for making me aware of this I will definitely be writing to my MP.

Comment by Squirrel— February 1, 2013 #
[...] PIP gives me the pip! [...]

Pingback by Best Small Cars with Big Boots | Chartwell Insurance— March 18, 2013 #